Unit 2 - Challenges for future research and practice

Before presenting a case example, we conclude with five challenges for the future.

1.            Business is global, and managers and executives need to interact effectively with people from multiple cultures. This suggests that designing and implementing performance management programs that reflect cultural issues will be a challenge, especially in multinational organizations. Performance expectations and dimensions will need to be communicated clearly especially when multiple languages are involved. Cultural issues may affect raters’ willingness to participate and provide meaningful feedback. For example, subordinates rating supervisors may not be viewed in the same way in hierarchical, collectivistic cultures, for instance, in Asia, compared to individualistic cultures in which there is power equalization, for instance, in Scandinavian countries (Hofstede, 2003).

2.            We now have online methods of conveying and gathering information about performance management. As a result, challenges include developing and using online ratings, feedback through emails and other forms of electronic communication, survey generation systems that allow managers to seek feedback themselves when they want it, and comparative data on a host of performance topics that become public information.

3.            Organizations will face the challenge of understanding performance management from the standpoint of new-generation (e.g., X and Y) employees. This may encompass dealing with discontinuities between organizational expectations for performance, standards, and behavior and the thinking of new generation employees regarding career goals, concerns for work-life balance, and modes of communication. Younger generations may not have the same performance standards, career goals, and desires for development compared to older generations. Of course, this is a continuously evolving picture (Huntley, 2006).

4.            Another challenge is linking performance management programs to the many interfaces that employees and managers have, including input from customers, suppliers of outsourced functions, and joint venture partners, to name a few stakeholders in performance management. These are constantly shifting, yet these various constituencies all have a stake in the performance management process. They contribute to an individual’s performance and are able to provide a perspective about he individual’s performance (Amabile & Kramer, 2007). So performance management systems need to recognize the contributions of others to an individual’s performance and also collect information about the individual’s performance from people who make these contributions.

5.         Overall, a principle challenge is preparing for, and creating, the workplace of the future. Strategic performance management systems can help create a learning, feedback-oriented culture that incorporates the above shifts in globalization, technology, and workforce attitude, and attract, develop, and retain talent to maintain high standards and strive for continuous performance improvement.